Two local heroes missing from Vietnam Wall photo gallery

By DOUG McDONOUGH dmcdonough@hearstnp.com

Published
9:07 am CDT, Friday, September 18, 2015

Courtesy Photo Janna Hoehn of Hawaii displays some of the photographs of military personnel whose names are etched on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. She is part of a group working to collect photos of each one listed on The Wall. less

Courtesy Photo Janna Hoehn of Hawaii displays some of the photographs of military personnel whose names are etched on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. She is part of a group working to collect photos of ... more

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Courtesy Photo Janna Hoehn of Hawaii displays some of the photographs of military personnel whose names are etched on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. She is part of a group working to collect photos of each one listed on The Wall. less

Courtesy Photo Janna Hoehn of Hawaii displays some of the photographs of military personnel whose names are etched on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. She is part of a group working to collect photos of ... more

Two local heroes missing from Vietnam Wall photo gallery

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The names of 18 fallen heroes from Hale County are listed on The Wall in Washington, D.C., according to Janna Hoehn, a volunteer with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. - Faces Never Forgotten program.

That group is on a quest to find photographs of individual whose name is etched on the Vietnam Wall. The photos will be displayed in a new museum that will be adjacent to the memorial on the National Mall, as well as posted online.

Thus far, they have photos of 16 Hale County fallen heroes from the Vietnam War, but still need two more - Joe Pena Jr. of Plainview and Jose A. Reyes of Cotton Center. According to Hoehn, records show that Pena was born in 1944 and died in 1967 while Reyes was born in 1947 and died in 1968.

Photos of those two fallen heroes, or information on where the photos might be found, should be set to Hoehn at neverforgotten2014@gmail.com.

Hoehn, who has lived in Maui, Hawaii, for the past 25 years, made her first visit to Washington, D.C., and The Wall, with her husband six years ago.

“Because Vietnam was the war that was going on while I was in high school, the first memorial on my list was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall,” she said. “Even though I never knew anyone killed in Vietnam, I wanted a rubbing of one of the names. I approached the Wall and choose a name -- Gregory John Crossman, an MIA. When I returned home, I decided to research Gregory and try to find his family. In the event they were never able to go to the Wall, I would send them the etching, hoping they would share a photo with me of Gregory.”

Off and on for the next six months, she continued her research but was not able to locate any of the serviceman’s family.

“I was quite disappointed, however I had one more possibility, my cousin the family historian.”

Six weeks later, that cousin found a college photo of Gregory.

Two years later, Hoehn saw a newspaper story about the “Faces Never Forgotten” program, which has a goal of putting a face with every name listed on the Wall.

“I immediately sent in the photo I had of Gregory Crossman. Five days later, I received an email from Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Wall. He thanked me and asked me if I could help him find photos for the 42 Maui County fallen who were killed in Vietnam.”

It took six months, and a tremendous amount of help from others, but she found photos of all 42.

“Once I finished finding the Maui County photos, I moved on to my hometown in California and found the five soldiers from Hemet, California.”

She then started trying to locate photos of the Native Americans on The Wall, and then moved on to various western states. Texas is now the 12th state in her quest.

“The response has been amazing,” she said. “I have collected nearly 1,500 photos since May 2013,” taking it one state at a time.

She is submitting all the photos to the “Wall of Faces” online memorial with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, and the education center that will be constructed adjacent to the Vietnam Wall.

Of the 58,307 names on The Wall, the project to date has collected photos for more than 42,000.

“I am also looking for an individual who would like to volunteer to be my ‘boots on the ground’ in the community if we do not find all the photos,” she said.

Photos of those on The Wall can be seen by visiting the Wall of Faces website. Individual photos can be seen by typing in the individual’s in the search box.

In addition to the two missing Hale County fallen heroes, Hoehn still lack eight photos of others on The Wall from the immediate area, including: